Process for making axes



JOHN ORELUP, OF BALLSTON SPA, NEV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO ISAIAH BLOOD, AUG.J. GOFFE, AND GEO. R. THOMAS, OF BALLSTON SPA, NEW YORK.

PROCESS FOR MAKING AXES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,000, dated June 8, 1852.

To all 'whom fit may concern.

Be it known that I, JOHN ORELUP, of the village of Ballston Spa,Saratoga county, State of New York, have invented a new and usefulprocess for the manufacture of axes, together with the apparatusnecessary for accomplishing the same, which I call Orelups process of axmaking, and I declare the following specification, with the drawingsforming part of the same, to be a full and accurate description thereof.

My improvement relates especially to the manufacture of that part calledtechnically the aX-pole, that is the ax as it is forged previous to theafliXing to it of the steel edge. It has been usual before the date ofmy invention to make the poles of axes by taking a piece of iron of aproper size (according as the ax was intended to be large or small) andhammer each end thin leaving it (the piece of iron) of itsv originalthickness inthe middle to form the head of the pole; then t-he two endswhich have been reduced are bent at right angles to the thick part wherethey join the same so that the straight side of the piece of iron formsthe inside or eye of the aX and the shoulder formed by the thick partwhere it joins the thin, comes upon the outside and forms the side ofthe pole; a piece of iron of a proper size (called a slug) is placedbetween the thin ends and to which they are welded. When made in thisway the iron is very apt to break where the thin parts join the thickand the labor is lost and the iron of little worth.

To remedy the defect above mentioned and effect as much at one heat asis effected at two by the old method I take a piece of iron cut from abar which has been rolled of the proper width and thickness for theparticular size of the aX designed to be made. Such a piece of metal isshown in Figure 1X. It is a` little more than half as thick, a littleless than the width, and a little less than twice as long as the ax poleto be made. This bar is to be subjected to the operation of a triphammer, having as its lower face a tool or die formed as shown as Fig.2A, which is a perspective view of it as seen from below, and at Fig. 4Cwhere a cross section of it through the center is shown in a differentperspective View of said face. From these views it will be seen that thehammer-face or die consists of a parallelepiped L a a a, with projectingo-r elevated ends a, 6,---c separated by a space but a little largerthan the intended width of the ax polega tongue or feather l connectingthese elevated ends, along the center of the face, and having its loweredge rounded. The ends t ZJ-a c have all their edges also rounded. Thetongue f on the top of the a, a, is for the purpose of attaching it tothe trip-hammer when in use.

The operation with the hammer is as follows: Spaces having beendetermined toward each end of the bar at which to form half the eye forthe ax, as at i, z', z', z' Fig. l; the bar is heated to a forging heatand laid upon a flat anvil B, then blows are to be struck with therounded ends a, b or a, c of the hammer, near and parallel with theedges of the bar at the spots i, t', z', 2'. rfhe effect of these blowsis to spread the iron laterally at those spots, and give the bar theform shown at Fig. 3. The bar is then laid directly under the hammer sothat the tongue CZ may operate directly upon the spaces z' i z' z'marked out for the half-eyes, when by rapid hammering each half eye issunk in the metal at m, m, Fig. 4, which by the same operation is alsodrawn out so as to give the bar the shape shown at Fig. 5. The half eyesare completed and finished by turning the bar over, and laying themalternately on the swaging tool, whose shape is shown with sufficientdistinct-ness in Fig. 6 to make a more specific description unnecessary,when a few blows on the back of the bar with a flat faced hammerfinishes each half eye and makes them equal and similar. The bar is nowcut across equidistant from the half eyes that is in the center of thebar nearly but not quite through, as from to y Fig. 5, upon the'sideopposite to that in which the half eyes have been sunk. It is then bentover or doubled in a direction the reverse of that heretofore practised,so that the portion uncut from to e serves for a hinge so that the halfeyes come together and are opposite to and coincide with each other, asshown in Fig. 7 and so that the part hammered in making the score orhalf eye comes inside (instead of outside as in the old method) and thehalves of the ax pole are now ready to be welded together the two facesof the score m y forming the face of the head as x y m g/ Fig. 7. Thewelding being done the process is completed and the pole is ready toreceive the steel edge which finishes the aX.

The following may be enumerated as the advantages I' claim to beeffected by the above process: 1. The eye is made symmetrical, and alsosimilar in all aXes of the same class, leaving the thickness of the axon each side of the eye equal. 2. The cutting of the ax head partiallythrough and then turning over the metal, permits the making of a morefinished article with less labor than by the usual method of turning themetal over in a loop, and hammering it down to shape. 3. The wholeprocess can be accomplished in one heating of the metal, which cannot bedone by the ordinary process. The result of the whole being that a moreperfect and a cheaper article is produced than by the common processes.

I claim the method of manufacturing ax poles by a process of which thefollowing are its successive steps in combination with others, as theyare applied to the metal bar of the bar so that the half-eyes shalluniteV in correspondence with each other and form the eye of the ax,completing the whole ready for welding the two halves of the poletogether, substantially as the process is set forth in the abovespecification.

JOHN ORELUP. Vitnesses:

JAMES B. SANDERS, REN VARICK DEVVITT.

